Friday, August 1, 2014

COMING AT YOU WITH INCREDIBLE NINJA ACROBATICS: a really late posting about a poster I designed and illustrated back in May!

This was another collaboration with the fine folks at Banana Stand Media. This time for a series of secret summer shows they are hosting at the Double Dragon Bar in Portland. I'm happy to say that after the poster's debut, it got some love on Portland Mercury's Blogtown "Poster of the Week" feature!

It may be pretty obvious to gaming nerds why there is a video game theme here... originally I was asked to do something pretty simple: draw two dragons. Which is fun n' all, but after hearing that the event was at a bar called the Double Dragon, my mind went straight to the video game connection. Therefore, I requested to do a sort of homage to Spike and Hammer, the martial arts bros you play in the 1980's game series, Double Dragon. Design inspirations came from the classic mail-order NES Konami posters of the time, as well as a promo ad of the brothers, back-to-back, showing off their guns.

Spike + Hammer

I don't think there was ever a Konami Double Dragon poster specifically... Feel free to school me ninja-style if you know better.

The shows are taking place every monday from June to September 2014, with a special unannounced band taking to the stage around 8:00 each evening. For more info here is a write up in the Portland Mercury. If you are around P-land, you should check it out! It's an awesome venue for seeing some local bands in a cozy setting, while sipping the hell out of a Ginger Margarita on a warm summer night. I will mention that this bar also has some seriously fantastic Miso Gravy Fries that I get mad cravings for now... but they don't sell this item on show nights. *whimper*

Special thanks goes to my friend Sara Proctor for nailing an impromptu modeling session in the Dark Horse parking lot, and also to Jesse Gregg for reminding me about those rad Konami posters! Thanks again to Aaron Colter, and Banana Stand Media for allowing me to get fun with it. (Some of you may recall my Arrested Development themed illustration of Buster Bluth that was also commissioned by Banana Stand. I wrote about it here: MotherBoy XXX )